Campaign Finance Law Adds New Home Address Privacy Protections

A new state law classifies certain candidate address information as private or nonpublic data, requiring cities to remove, redact, and repost campaign finance filings to comply with the protections.

During the 2026 legislative session, lawmakers passed the omnibus campaign finance bill (Chapter 101). It contains provisions related to street address privacy, reclassifies address data on certain forms as private or nonpublic, extends protections to candidates’ immediate family members in some cases, and requires cities to redact nonpublic information from campaign filings.

A key provision creates new home address privacy protections for candidates seeking state and local office that balances candidate safety, campaign filing requirements, and public transparency. To accomplish this, new protections were created in Minnesota Statutes, Chapters 10A, 204B, and 211A to classify street addresses contained in certain reports as nonpublic or private data.

Candidate address protections

Candidates for local offices must follow the campaign finance requirements found in Minnesota Statutes, Chapter 211A and applicable local ordinances, and file certain disclosures with a local filing officer. Campaigns that raise or spend larger amounts of money must make this information public through campaign finance filings. Cities with 400 or more registered voters must make all required filings under Chapter 211A available on their website, if they have one.

New Minnesota Statute, section 211A.015 covers data classifications for reports filed with a county, municipality, school district, or other political subdivision. Under the law, street addresses contained in statements and reports filed with local governments are classified as nonpublic or private data. Counties, cities, school districts, and other political subdivisions may still access the information to ensure compliance with the law. Similar protections also apply to addresses contained in filings for state office and affidavits of candidacy.

The new automatic protections for street addresses do not apply to all candidate filings. For example, information about real property, such as a home or other land ownership, disclosed on a statement of economic interest is not automatically classified as private or nonpublic. However, a candidate who reasonably fears for their own safety or the safety of an immediate family member may request that the information be protected.

Cities must review and update campaign finance reports posted online

The new protections for candidates’ street addresses took effect on May 26, 2026. As a result, cities must review campaign finance reports from the previous four years that are posted on their websites and ensure that any protected information is removed before the reports are made publicly available again. Cities must complete this process and repost the redacted reports by Nov. 19, 2026.

For campaign finance reports and statements from the previous four years that are posted on the city’s website, the city must:

• Remove any document containing information that is now classified as private or nonpublic.
• Redact the protected information, including protected street addresses.
• Repost the redacted version by Nov. 19, 2026.

Going forward, before posting a campaign finance report or statement online or otherwise making it available to the public, cities must ensure that any information classified as private or nonpublic has been redacted.

Read more news articles.